Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, back from a short appointment to the United Nations, is weighing his options.Gus Chan, Plain Dealer file photo

WASHINGTON, DC – Ted Strickland is back.

The former Ohio governor, a Democrat with liberal opinions
on work and social issues but less so on
gunrights and rural values, never exactly went away. But his political
voice was muzzled by a White House nomination and job that held partisan
politics at bay.

The muzzle is off, as witnessed by Strickland's push-back
this week at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's appearance in Illinois, his taping
last night for a segment on Ed Schultz's MSNBC show and a scheduled face-off
opposite Republican strategist Karl Rove on this coming weekend's Fox News
Sunday.

Strickland, 72, is not even ruling out another political
run. He told a Columbus Dispatch reporter that he is keeping his options open,
including for a possible run in 2016 against Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Rob
Portman. In a lengthy Plain Dealer telephone interview late Thursday,
Strickland expanded on that possibility. He said he also is talking with a Washington, DC, think tank about
working for it, but he would not name the think tank.

The Ohio governor from 2007 through 2010, Strickland said he
has made no decisions one way or the other about seeking another office. But
when asked about challenging Portman in two years, Strickland quickly noted a
poll this week that showed Ohioans know little about the job performance of the
incumbent senator. The poll, conducted
by Public Policy Polling, showed that a sample of only 28 percent of Ohioans
approve of Portman's job performance but 35 percent disapprove – and 36 percent
aren't sure. PPP surveyed 525 Ohio voters, with a margin of error of 4.3
percentage points.

The poll was dismissed by Republicans because of its timing,
right after a controversial vote on extending federal unemployment benefits. The
poll asked, among other things: "Last week
Senator Portman cast one of the deciding votes against reinstating unemployment
benefits to 1.8 million Americans who are out of work. Does Senator Portman's
vote against reinstating unemployment benefits make you more or less likely to
support him in the next election, or does it not make a difference either way?"

Fifty-one
percent of respondents answered "less likely."

The poll also
asked voters how they would feel about raising the minimum
wage to $10 an hour, an issue that liberals hope to pressure the GOP senator on. Sixty-four percent of Ohio voters said they would support it.

Portman voted no on unemployment benefits, as he has
before, because he says the cost of financing this particular bill would deepen
the federal debt. He has proposed other means to pay for the benefits but they
have been rejected so far by Democratic leaders and criticized by liberals as
harmful to beneficiaries of other programs. If the Senate ultimately agrees to
a compromise and Portman votes for it, any effect on Portman from these recent
votes would probably be negated.

But Tom Jensen, director of PPP, said in an email this
morning, "He's
one of the most low profile senators in the country. There's almost no one else
who so few voters have an opinion about in their home state and it leaves him
susceptible to being defined in 2016 by unpopular votes like this because he
doesn't have much capital built up with voters."

PPP is an independent pollster and its work is generally
regarded highly. But it bears noting that an independent poll by the Quinnipiac
University Polling Institute in November found Portman with a 41 percent job
approval rating among Ohioans, much higher than the 28 percent disapproval it
showed and the 30 percent "don't know."

Strickland brought up the PPP poll when asked if he has
commissioned any polling to help inform his political decisions.

"No," he said. "But I was extremely interested in the PPP
poll that came out the other day" on Portman. Strickland noted that it
indicated that Ohians don't know much about Portman's job performance.

"That doesn't surprise me much," Strickland said. "My
perception is that he is not hugely known in the state."

Strickland, a former minister and psychologist by training, is
known as genial and empathetic but with good political instincts, capable of a
barb when needed. Ohio Gov. John Kasich defeated him for reelection in 2010 by
2 percentage points.

So why was Strickland mostly silent in the political ring for the last five months?

He says it was because from September to December, he served
as an executive in the United States' delegation to the United Nations. He was awaiting
Senate confirmation of his nomination by President Barack Obama to be an alternate
U.N. representative.

Federal law limits the partisan political activities of most federal employees. And although Strickland didn't say it, any politicking would
guarantee that Senate Republicans would vote against his confirmation.

As it was, however, numerous nominations requiring
confirmation never got to the Senate floor. They were held up amid bickering
between Democrats, who control a 55-seat majority, and Republicans, who have
been able to use the right to filibuster to block nominees and an Obama agenda
they dislike.

Strickland's nomination expired at the end of 2013. Obama
has been resubmitting a number of nominations, but Strickland's was not among
them, and it won't be, Strickland told The Plain Dealer. He said the decision
was made mutually, and said the New York-based job mostly involved work when
the UN General Assembly is in session, from September to December.

Considering that it was a year-long appointment but with
duties concentrated in the last four months of the year, "it would have been a
little unnecessary to resubmit" and go through the process again, Strickland
said.

The White House Office of Personnel Management "just called and said they were
thinking of not resubmitting it, given that my duties had already been finished
and I was back home," Strickland said.

Asked for comment, the White House said its decision on Strickland was consistent with how it has handled past UN alternate delegate nominees who were not confirmed. Two additional alternate delegates also were not confirmed, and they too are not being renominated, the White House said.

As to his next move, Strickland is noncommittal.

"To be really candid with you, I just want to keep my
options open," he said. "I don't want to close any doors. I have made no
specific decisions. I am talking with a think tank about doing some work with
them."

Asked if that is attractive to him, he said, "Yes, it is. Depending
on what issues I pursued there, it could be very attractive."

He said he is interested in issues of "economic justice," and
criticized New Jersey's Gov. Christie for suggesting that Democrats are focused on trying to make all incomes equal and driving the country "toward mediocrity."

"We're concerned with income inequality," Strickland said. "We
don't believe that everybody should be the same." But he said Democrats believe
that everybody should have an opportunity to close the gap.

In Illinois, Strickland spoke on behalf of the Democratic Party before
Christie, in the state to raise money for Republican governors, appeared for a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. Strickland
criticized the New Jersey governor as either lying or incompetent when he said
he didn't know that an aide had shut down access lanes to the George Washington
Bridge in an act of political retribution, according to coverage of the Illinois events by the Star Ledger, the
Newark, New Jersey newspaper. The lane closures
caused a massive traffic jam, escalating into a scandal for Christie, who was considered
a front-runner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

Ohio's Portman, a former White House budget director, is
considered a longer-shot for the presidency, although his budgetary skills and
studious manner could help him gain momentum if flashier candidates were to
flame out. Portman, who also raises money nationally as chairman of the
Republican Senate election committee's finance effort, has not foreclosed that
possibility if it were to occur, but has made clear that he is, in fact,
running for reelection to the Senate.

Strickland, when asked if he would run for Senate if Democrats
urged him to, dismissed that as a reason.

"A good enough reason for me to run would be if I thought I
was the best candidate and best-positioned candidate to be successful in a
race." He is not awaiting a draft-Strickland movement.

Portman's office declined to comment on Strickland. But the
Ohio Republican Party did not.

"What I see is a guy who's been out of office for four years
and is bored and has nothing to do," said state Republican communications
director Chris Schrimpf. "And he also sees an Ohio Democratic Party that is a
disaster since the national guys picked up and left."

Schrimpf was referring to Obama's campaign team in Ohio in
2012.

Strickland rejects any notion that his own party is weak or
lacks a strong bench from which to pick a Portman challenger. He specifically
named David Pepper, a former Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County
Commission member running for state attorney general; state Rep. John Patrick
Carney, who is running for state auditor; state Sen. Nina Turner, running for
Ohio secretary of state; state Rep. Connie Pillich, running for state treasurer,
and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who is challenging Kasich's
reelection as governor.

"These people are highly active, bright people," Strickland
said. "I don't know what any of them would choose to do in the future" in terms
of a Portman challenge, he said, but he said he thinks the Democrats have a
stronger bench than the Republicans.

About FitzGerald: Strickland pushed back against what he
called media characterizations that his backing of FitzGerald was lukewarm.

"There's been some indication in the newspapers that I am not
as involved with or excited by the campaign of Ed FitzGerald, and that's
patently false," Strickland said. He repeated that his UN job kept him from
engaging in politics.

"I think I've done everything that Ed FitzGerald has asked
me to do for him," he said.

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